NEWS
Monday, March 23, 2015 5
Politics and Pupils
What comes first for faculty during the strike?
douglas judson › contributor
O
sgoode hall Law School is caught in the
crosshairs of yet another York University
labour disruption by the Canadian Union
of Public Employees Local 3903 (CUPE
3903). The union represents contract faculty, graduate assistants, and teaching assistants, only the
latter two of which remain on strike. On 3 March,
the university suspended all classes, with limited exceptions. Faculties seeking to resume operations were required to apply to the York Senate for
an exemption to the blanket shut down. The Senate
policy has become the battlefield of the divided varsity, and the futures and careers of Osgoode students
have been haplessly caught in the balance.
Doctrine and duty.
To be upfront: I acknowledge the right to strike. My
concern lies with distinguishing faculty support
for labour with the execution of their governance
responsibilities as part of the institution and their
duty to students.
Certainly, the labour rift has been keenly felt by
those on all sides of the dispute at Osgoode. Union
supporters, CUPE critics, and those who simply
want the option to return to school have busied
themselves with a hashtagged debate over why
or why not a given faculty ought to stand in solidarity with the union and why students should or
should not cross the picket line. While that discourse is predictable (and perhaps desirable) across
any distressed student body, it is from these political
trenches that a disturbing fault line has surfaced in
the university’s governance structure.
Many are sounding the alarm over what they
perceive as the refusal of some faculty with governance roles at Osgoode and York to make decisions
in the best interests of the institution and its students, rather than their personal ideological preferences. They point to recurrent attempts to needlessly
suspend classes, in solidarity with the impugned
union, when doing so is clearly unwarranted. This
is particularly true for faculties with minimal reliance on CUPE 3903 members or where the impact
on students would be disproportionate. On this
rubric, Osgoode is both a distant bystander to the
strike, and its students are at risk of becoming one of
its greatest casualties.
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